1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to credit cards. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved credit card case for carrying a series of credit cards.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of credit cards has increased dramatically in the United States and around the world in recent years. It is often the case that an individual will have six or eight or more credit cards to carry, along with other personal effects, during the day's activities. Such credit cards may be bank credit cards, gasoline credit cards, merchant credit cards, travel credit cards, and the like. Of course, one problem with carrying multiple credit cards is that it is necessary to keep them assembled in a reasonable orderly fashion within the owner's pocket or purse. And toward this end, there have been created over the years a number of different credit card case structures which are adapted to store a series of credit cards until use of one or more is desired by the cards' owner. Such credit card cases are typically incorporated with wallets that are mainly directed to storage of paper money and coinage. But it is also well known to provide credit card cases which are primarily directed to storage of nothing but credit cards.
The use of credit cards has brought on a significant problem that periodically occurs to some card owners. When a credit card is to be used by the owner, the desired card is first withdrawn from its credit card case (or wallet or purse), and then is presented to the establishment, e.g., a retail store or hotel or the like, for use by the establishment's clerk in charging the owner's purchase. In other words, the credit card is temporarily taken from the owner's possession and presented to the establishment's clerk for use by the establishment in a purchase transaction. Of course, once the establishment's clerk is done making an imprint of the credit card on the charge slip in accord with the card owner's instruction, the clerk then returns the credit card to the card owner so the owner can return the card to its rightful place in the owner's credit card case or wallet or purse. But this last step periodically never occurs due to the forgetfulness of the clerk and/or the card owner. In other words, every once in a while a credit card owner will simply fail to retrieve his credit card from an establishment's clerk and, therefor, will fail to replace it in his credit card case or wallet or purse. When this happenstance occurs, i.e., when the card owner simply forgets to retrieve his card and return it to its rightful place of storage, then the credit card passes out of the owner's control for that time where it remains out of the owner's possession. And indeed, it may never return to the card owner's possession in that it simply thereafter could become lost or stolen. Of course, no credit card owner is desirous of losing a credit card because of unauthorized charge problems on the owner's credit card account that might arise while it is out of the owner's possession.
Now it is known to the prior art to provide a credit card case with an alarm system so that the case's owner is notified or signaled when an attempt is made to return the case to its storage position within the owner's pocket or purse without all cards being present. There are two basic types of such systems, one being a mechanical interference system and the other being an electric circuit system. The mechanical interference system is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,369,585 and 3,648,832. Both these patents disclose credit card carriers which make use of mechanical interference means in the event all cards are not replaced before the case flaps are folded together so that, in effect, the case cannot be closed in the first place due to that mechanical interference if all credit cards are not replaced within the case. The electrical circuit system approach is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,959,789 and 4,480,250. Each of those prior art patents discloses a credit card carrier with a series of electric switches provided for the cards, and an overall circuit control switch operated either through use of a timer, or through opening and closing of the case flaps. But each of these circuit system approaches makes use of a separate pocket for each individual credit card, and each makes use of a separate credit card sensor switch associated with each of those pockets. So from a commercial embodiment standpoint that might be saleable at retail, it seems to applicant that both the mechanical interference and electric circuit prior art approaches, as disclosed in the above-mentioned patents, may have a couple of disadvantages. But all of the disadvantages revolve around the fact that those prior art credit card carriers have relatively complex type alarm systems that are relatively expensive to manufacture and that are relatively bulky in final unit size. Therefor such prior art systems may not be desired by the retail consumer who is the ultimate arbiter of a new product's success.